Advertisement

Nigeria Election: Probe killing of Rep. Olatoye – ADP tells DSS, Police


The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has urged the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to probe the killing of Rep. Temitope Olatoye.

The Chairman of ADP, Mr Yabagi Sani, made the call at a press conference on Friday in Abuja, NAN reports.

Sani said that the gruesome murder of Olatoye, the ADP candidate for the 2019 Senatorial election in Oyo State, the violence, irregularities and the inconclusive elections in other states of the federation must be probed.

“We express our grief over the violent death of Hon. Temitope Olatoye, (aka Sugar), a serving member of the House of Representatives, who contested the 2019 senatorial elections on the platform of our party, the ADP.

“He was brutally murdered in broad daylight in the presence of eye witnesses and to our utter dismay no visible action has been taken by the authorities.

“We call on the Inspector General of Police, Director General, DSS and other relevant security agencies to within the next forty hours, order a thorough investigation and bring to book the perpetrators of this dastardly political killing,” he said.

He expressed confidence that President Muhammadu Buhari would ensure that justice was done as he promised, during his campaign that all perpetrators of election violence would be made to face the wrath of the law.

“We are confident of justice in this premeditated day light murder as we rely on the promises made by President Muhammadu Buhari before the elections that all perpetrators of election violence will be made to face the full wrath of the law.

“Rep. Olatoye was reportedly shot at a close range on March 9, 2019, and later died at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

“This followed the bullet wounds he suffered in the head inflicted on him by suspected political opponents in Lalupon area of Ibadan, Oyo state.

“The ADP is exceedingly worried that Sugar who had won his senatorial election convincingly but was later upturned was reportedly attacked by suspected thugs of a rival politician in his Lagelu/Akinyele Federal Constituency of Oyo State,” he said.

Sani, who commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, however, said there was room for improvement.

“Although election operations improved, there are some systemic failures by INEC, such as malfunctioning of card readers and their inability to read the PVCs resulting in manual voting that wasted so much time and discouraged voters.

“We in the ADP therefore, call for a comprehensive reforms in the electoral process,” he said.